MIR – A Love Story

MIR – A Love Story

A production by Constanza Macras | DorkyPark in coproduction with Sophiensæle. Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. aus Mitteln des Bundes.

Summary

MIR – a love story uses the conditions and experiences aboard the space station MIR as an allegory for love. Like an astronaut, the lover endures miscommunication, dependencies and the vibrant but fragile energy; unstable and imperfect, they experience sleeplessness, disorientation, and loss of gravity.
The lover is dependent on an undependable central command – the other. Today one of the few remaining luxuries is devotion to an original cause as in the Soviet’s MIR – even its malfunctions. The Mission begins with discovery, goes on with subsistence and ends in a nostalgic caricature. Resolute survival reinforces what the lover knows witout any further truth. Love as stubborn persistence. Love as the mission to rediscover what the goal of the mission was.
The MIR space station is the culmination of the Russian space program’s effort to endure human presence in space. When asked about his daily life, a Russian cosmonaut explained: ‘I survive. This is my full time job, and I consider myself successful’. MIR’s main purpose is survival and heroism is no longer based on conquest but on endurance and persistence.

In ‘MIR a Love Story #3: Endurance’ a cast of 5 dancers, a musician and 4 elderly ladies cohabitate in space.

Reviews

“The more beautiful is the stage, a happy collection of strange everyday utensils stemming from former times: The old GDR (German Democratic Republic) is everywhere: Hammer and sickle are participating in the dance. A Russian matrioschka looking for her owner, blow up hair drying hoods hopping through the air, flying wigs, somewhere videos of the MIR interior perished long ago are being shown. MIR #3 endurance”, this is the title Constanza Macras gives to the finale of her spaceship-trilogy, which she is now presenting at “Dance in August”. Without any pro-blems we manage to endure, sitting on yellow pillows. 96 minutes are vanishing into thin air. No wonder, MIR is as fast as a rocket; funny, energetic, weightless. With it’s deep humor the choreography evokes memories of Sasha Waltz’s ‘Allee der Kosmonauten.’